San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1887-11-30
WEDNESDAY. NOVEMBER, 80, 1887.
NO WAR ON THE CHURCH.

OOhC tnO Va thO
that Its position upon the Sunday law
has been misconstrued into hostility
toward the church, the LIGHT desires 10
put itself upon record in this matter alsOs
The LIGHT makes no war upon the
church. The LIGHT has no unfriendly
feeling toward the church. The LIGHT
has always given its columns freely,
without money and without price, to
advertise the WORK and service of the
church. The LIGHT recognizes the good
that there is in the church, and would
gladly see its ministries OF reformation
multiplied, and the broad Humanitarian
ism of its great teacher more fully un
derstood and exemplified in her life and
work. Believing this, the LIGHT could
not make war upon the church as an
institution As the censor OF the public
morals and the pulpit Of secular teach
ings, the daily press must take ground
on every question that arises, and which
In its solution affects the forms OF gov
eminent, the authority of the state, or
the rights Of the citizens. This work
the LIGHT cannot forego for any I'M
friendly criticism that may be passed
upon 1t, or for any censures or opro-
brium that may attach itself to the
opinions expressed. The LIGHT
regards the church as one institu-
tion among many, all under the
ahiaId nF ~ ha
state. The church is merely voluntary
association Of men and women having
the form Of spiritual or religious wOr-
ship, and desiring the power of spiritual
things as they understand them. So
long as this church, or any denOmins-
ton OF this church, confines itself to the
legitimate work Of controlling the lives,
regulating the beliefs, supervising the
families, constructing the oonsoiences
and levying its tributes upon the mind
and conduct and purse of its member
ship-so long do its acts concern, and
only concern, the members OF its com
munion. The membership In such com
munion is voluntary. Those who do not
desire ii may remain aloof from it. So
long as 1t does not attempt to interfere
with or abridge the privileges of those
without its communion, so long no man
outside Of Its pale has any right to inter-
fere with 1t. When the church, not con-
tent with regulating matters within her
communion steps outside and attempts
to bind her peculiar IDEAS OF morals, of
holy days, OF religious time, OF churchly
worship, upon the minds and con-
sclencs OF others, and invokes the aid Of
the state to enforce those ideas-then
she challenges the authority by which
she seeks thus to usurp control OF that
which has not accepted her authority,
and which has not entered into any CO.
venant to obey her diotstions. The
command to render unto Caesar the
things that be Caesars, is as
Imperative as to render unto
God the things that be Gods.
Within her own pale, the church, lie all
powerful. AS an ecolesis, q body corpo-
rate, she controls her own affairs, and
under free government like ours is
protected in all her rights. She is not
an integral part Of the state any more
than q railroad corporation, or an oil
trust. or cattle syndicate, or liquor
dealers association, or a clearing house,
and has no more right to demand that
men outside Of her communion shall ac-
oept her ideas In morals, than any OF tn e
other associations have to demand that
outsiders shall accept their peculiar
ideas Of railroading, finance, oil specula-
tions, liquor production or ought else.
The state which gives all these the
rights and powers of corporate exist
ence, and protects In the exercise Of
those rights, gives she church the same
right to exist under state protection
no more. no less. The church breaches
her crusades against all that she does
not sanction, and so far as voluntary
acceptance Of her teaching goes may
convert all men to her way of thinking.